David Bailey Quotes

Being handsome wasn't much of a burden. It worked for me.

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

Rockers are the nicest people to photograph. They have no inhibitions.

I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats: it was the girls I liked.

Fortunately I didn't get educated because if I'd got educated I'd be an educated fool now.

I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.

All pictures are unnatural. All pictures are sad because they're about dead people. Paintings you don't think of in a special time or with a specific event. With photos I always think I'm looking at something dead.

Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love.

The skull is nature's sculpture.

A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me.

To get rich, you have to be making money while you're asleep.

The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.

I know everything should be photographed. It helps me make sense of my existence.

The reason I did fashion was it was the only way to get paid to do anything creative. You couldn't support yourself as an 'artist' - I hate that word. The only way you could be 'arty' was as a fashion photographer, because it still had a certain amount of integrity involved.

I didn't try and do fashion pictures. I tried to do portraits of girls wearing dresses.

You can't really copy what I do because I don't do anything.

Fashion often starts off beautiful and becomes ugly, whereas art starts off ugly sometimes and becomes beautiful.

It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.

Being trendy is dangerous. I've never been trendy, which is why I've never really fallen out of favour.

The only thing they can't teach you at art school is art.

I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.

My friends are all megalomaniacs - from Damien Hirst to Jack Nicholson - all of them.

I love learning new techniques.

I was ten when I got my first serious beating. It was rough.

People want security in this insecure world.

Being dyslexic, I was told that I was an idiot all the time.

I was dyslexic, so I was put in the silly class at school.

I always go for simplicity.

I don't feel very optimistic in London.

I'm not really one for regrets.

When I die I want to go to Vogue.

I didn't know a time when there wasn't a war because I spent all my time from the age of two or three to eight in a coal cellar really.

Girls are more attractive to me than dresses.

I like change. There's something Buddhist about it - continuous change is wonderful.

I've been used by women all my life, fortunately.

In France they don't think I'm difficult.

I don't think global warming is to do with us, I think it's a natural circle. I don't think a few Ferraris make that much difference.

I didn't know I was going to live for 50 years. It has come as a shock.

London changes because of money. It's real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it's money that changes everything in a city.

I left school on my 15th birthday.

I am not responsible for all the journalists in the past that have told lies.

I don't think my work does reflect my nationality - I don't like the idea of nationalism.

I had a terrible time with feminists in the Seventies. They hated me, those women. I think they hated everything.

I'm never shocked, I'm not the shockable type!

Sometimes I still can't believe my luck.

The Sixties was a time of breaking down class barriers, although I think class still exists today in some areas.

I don't like any sport except boxing and bull fighting.

You have to kind of be invisible when you photograph children, so you use a longer lens.

I hate being so nostalgic about the Sixties.

The trouble with people like Tony Blair is they get confused, they think intelligence is education when they're two different things.